Not the man I'm looking for
by flashmanfan
Summary: In her quest to find the Doctor and stop the stars from going out, Rose Tyler finds herself in a creepy hospital corridor where she meets somebody she didn't expect to meet.


Not the man I'm looking for

The air shimmered. Blue bolts of plasma crackled and coiled above a small swirling vortex. The mouth of the vortex opened wider and wider, and, with ferocious force, spat Rose Tyler out into the empty corridor, before disappearing once again leaving only the tang ozone in its wake. Rose, graceful as ever, ran full force into the nearest wall, ricochet off it, and slid to a squeaky halt on the overly waxed floor tiles.

'You'd think I'd be getting better at that by now!' she said as she straightened up her jacket and began to look around. She was in a long corridor of some sort, there were no windows so she couldn't really tell if she had landed on Earth or not.

'Only one way to find out,' she mused as she cautiously began to walk down the corridor. The first thing she noticed after the jump, was the smell, it was a sour, sickly smell, like a mix of ammonia and vitamins, just like the one you got when you walked into a hospital ward or a dentist's office. In fact, judging by the grimly painted, stark white walls and ceiling, and the cheap fluorescent strip lights buzzing over her head, she guessed hospital corridor was probably right on the money, that, and the large sign on the wall that said "Henry Ford Hospital", which was a bit of a giveaway really.

Both sides of the corridor were dotted with heavy set doors, at rather close intervals. She peaked through the little hatch in the nearest door. The room it contained was small. It had no furniture inside, except for a steel framed bed with a bare mattress on top. There was nothing else in the room, not a toilet nor sink or anything, even though she suspected that the patients kept in these rooms, were kept under lock and key.

'And to think people complain about the NHS?' she said in a nostalgic way.

She idly wondered if this was some kind of maximum security hospital, or perhaps a military hospital of some sort. Either way, she thought it best not to get caught lurking around in the corridors. She heard a T.V. set blaring from what looked to be an office up ahead. A deep and hearty laugh erupted from the room, followed by some cheap canned laughter and simulated audience applause of the T.V. show that was on. Rose spun around on her heels and quickly walked away from the noise, and the threat of being discovered.

Various sobs and moans escaped from some of the cells/ rooms that she passed but most seemed to be empty. Her hand ghosted across her jacket pocket, feeling for the reassuring lump of her Torchwood issued Glock 17. She hated having to carry a gun, but sometimes, in situations like this, where she was all alone and didn't know where she was or what she was up against, but sometimes it was good to know it was there, if needed. And this place, well, this place was definitely one of the creepier places she jumped into. She wondered if it was even the right Universe she had landed in this time, not that it really mattered though, of all of the places she was likely to find the Doctor, lurking around in a creepy hospital corridor was not exactly top of the list, although. A large grin flashed across her face at that thought and she continued her trek with more vigour.

She walked down deserted corridor after deserted corridor, and soon became a bit more acclimatised to the occasional screams, guttural groans and strange banging sounds coming from the various rooms. She hadn't seen or heard any evidence of staff members, only that one guy watching T.V., back in the first corridor she had been in. She guessed it must be late at night with only a skeleton crew on duty to watch the patients. Soon enough, she came to a T junction in the corridor, the right branch was brightly lit with another small office at the top, probably a porters office or nurse station or something. The left branch looked far more ominous. It was eerily quiet for a start, also, there was only one light on at the end of the corridor, and even that was flickering menacingly.

'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference,' Rose mumbled to herself, and then though better of talking to herself in a place like this, it was bound to end badly. She stealthily snuck down the darker, more ominous corridor. Empty beds and wheelchairs littered the hallway, they were all equipped with rubber restraints. There wasn't a sound coming from the cells along here. She reached the halfway point in the corridor and came across a sign, which read _Level 2B_. She chuckled mischievously, as she pulled her black eyeliner pen out of her jacket pocket and scribbled underneath _or not 2B_. She sniggered away at her cleverness as she carried on down the corridor.

She had nearly reached the end of the passageway by now, and all of the rooms so far had been empty, she was about to turn around and try the other direction, when she heard a voice coming from the last cell in the hallway.

'...bowtie, that was a present from Winston Churchill, now there was a man who could appreciate somebody showing a bit of imagination!'

'Right,' Rose deduced, 'either that's the Doctor in there, or, some lunatic that's so dangerous, he has to be kept miles away from all his fellow nutjobs.'

She took a deep breath and forged on towards the door.

_A few moments earlier..._

The Doctor woke with a very fuzzy, woolly head, no doubt the after effects of whatever drug he had been stuck with. He dared not open his eyes yet, in case he was being observed. It was always best to let your captures think you were still unconscious, while you gathered your wits about you, that was his motto anyway. He just lay there, and let his Timelord senses take over. The first thing he noticed was the smell, that distinctive disinfectant smell you immediately associate with being on a hospital ward, you didn't have to be a Timelord to work that one out. Next clue was the smooth rubber bindings that pinned his wrists and feet to the bed frame.

'Oh, for Rassilon's sake...not another mental hospital!' the Doctor whined, 'what is it with you humans eh, somebody shows a bit of imagination, a bit of, of self expression and what do you do? Lock 'em up that's what.'

He cracked open an eye to see if his suspicions were correct, and sighed. The room he was in was small, the white painted walls were bare, and the paint was old and flaky. There was a very secure looking green door at the foot of the bed. The bed he was in was not very comfortable. Besides the restraints, it had a too thin mattress that had sunk a bit in the middle, also it was one of those built in bedpan jobbies, which meant he must be wearing a backless hospital gown.

'You better not have lost that bowtie! That was a present from Winston Churchill, now there was a man who could appreciate somebody showing a bit of imagination!' he shouted, as he tugged experimentally at his wrist straps. He stopped when he heard the gravelly sound of the viewing slot being drawn across, and froze, when a pair of very familiar hazel eyes peeped in.

'Doctor?' came a disbelieving voice from outside.

'Rose Tyler,' he breath in that dreamy melancholy way that only the Doctor could ever manage.

'You've regenerated then,' she replied, a hint of sadness in her voice.

She tried to open the door, it was locked. She took a quick mental note of the cell number, written on the wall.

'Doctor I can't open it, it's locked, but I saw an office back up this corridor that might have some keys or something...just...I'll be right back'

With that, she turned and was gone, she hurried back down the corridor as quick as she could go. She didn't even wait to hear his response, if there was one. A mixture of emotions bubbled away inside her as she walked. Yes, she had found the Doctor, well, a version of Doctor, a version of the Doctor who knew her, but it wasn't her Doctor, either of her Doctors. No, this was not the man she was looking for. This man was a stranger. But, he was still the Doctor and he needed her help.

She approached the office with caution. It was quiet inside, but there was a light on so she didn't discount the possibility of somebody being in there. She wasn't about to take any chances and risk any unnecessary confrontations, her Torchwood training had taught her that much. She carefully peeked through the open doorway. There was somebody inside, a man and a bloody big one at that. He was dressed in white scrubs, a porter then, and he was stretched out on a comfy looking sofa totally engrossed in a book. _Noam Chomsky: Necessary Illusions_.

'Brains and brawn, not the sort of qualities I look for in the guards I'm trying to bypass,' Rose muttered to herself.

The sofa that the guard was on, was at the far side of the room and was facing towards the doorway, all it would take would be a quick glance upwards at the wrong time and it would be game over for her. To the left of the doorway there was a desk, the desk had a computer terminal and several monitor screens, crap, there was obviously a CCTV system in place, it was a wonder she managed to stay unnoticed for so long. On the wall beside the sofa, there was a board with lots of keys hanging on little hooks. It was right beside the guards head!

'Humph, this is just getting better and better,'

Rose stayed where she was for a moment and started to plot her course to get across the room. It was an impossible task. No matter what she envisioned she would be, at some point in time, visible to the porter. Then she heard it. The soft and wispy snores that were coming from across the room, the porter was asleep.

'Oh, thank god for that!' Rose said as she quietly stood up and stole across the room. She quickly scoured the wall for the key to the Doctor's cell and found it easily enough. She pivoted around and began her journey back to the Doctor's cell, not really knowing what kind of reception she would get from the stranger inside.

She was still reeling from the shock of meeting a future Doctor, a post Rose Tyler Doctor. Meeting earlier Doctors she had figured was always a possibility, she had been prepared for that, when she had started off blasting herself across the cosmos using the highly unpredictable and inaccurate dimension cannon. But this, she hadn't been prepared for this! She realised it was a pretty naive assumption for her to make, or not make, considering he had lived for 900+ years already, and was probably capable of living the same again. But she just couldn't conceive it, a future Doctor, a Doctor she will never know, and to him she'll just be a distant memory. _Pretty vain I guess._

She started wondering about what kind of changes he had undergone this time. He certainly looked different, younger, with a nose that would give his old self a run for his money. But, what kind of man had he become this time? The differences between his last two bodies, personality wise, was astounding, for all he professed to be the same man. Was he like her first Doctor, all broody and wounded, yet so dependable and strong? Or was he more like her second Doctor, lighter and more carefree but still with the all same hang ups when it came to getting close to someone? Or maybe he was so completely different, that Rose would find nothing recognisable in him at all! Rose's time for thinking had drawn to a finish, as she found herself back outside the cell door once again.

She announced her return by saying, 'not that I'm complaining, but the hospital security round here is just shocking.' She glanced through the viewing slot. By the time she had gotten back, the Doctor had already freed himself from his restraints and was sat on the bed, swinging his legs absentmindedly. He would have looked quite comical, in his stripy backless hospital gown, except for the forlorn and wistful look he wore on his face. He was lost in deep concentration. _Obviously he was as unprepared for seeing me as I was him_, thought Rose, she sighed, and placed the key in the lock and turned.

The Doctor sprang from his perch, as the door opened inwards. He moved with lightening speed, and had gathered Rose up in a bone crushing hug before she had even placed one foot in the cell.

'Rose Tyler, you're back! Oh how I've missed you so...what on Earth are you doing in here though? Not breaking out are you? Or were you breaking in? No, no, no that would be madness, breaking in to a mental hospital, or, if you were truly mad, then it's just being insightful, adept, reconciled...'

'Doctor!'

'Hullo!'

'Christ, enough already, I can see how you ended up in here then...'

The Doctor released her once again, and started pacing up and down the narrow space between the bed and the door.

'Really? I can't...haven't a clue, one minute I was chatting to a lady in a chip shop, just general chit chat really, nothing too serious, although I might have mentioned something about Sir Walter Menzies Campbell actually being a gaseous entity from the planet Flimplop, who has reanimated corpse of one General Arthur Woolf from Shrewsbury, a casualty of the second world war, well, I say reanimated but, not exactly the most liveliest of fellows, old Mingy, anyway, next thing...'

'Yeah...we're kinda in the middle of a hospital break here Doctor, you can keep the mad ramblings for later,' snarked Rose, 'now let's get going before I change my mind and lock you back up again.' Her earlier worries about him not being recognisable had vanished. He was definitely the same Doctor, just a bit madder this time round, if such a thing was possible.

'You eh...you wouldn't mind walking ahead of me would you? It's just, the eh...the sleepwear they provided, well, let's just say it's a bit drafty back here.'

Rose snorted with laughter as she took the lead.

'You're not the one I'm looking for, are you?' she more stated than asked, 'I mean you don't seem too worried about the stars going out,' she spun to face him, 'so I'm guessing that that's already happened for you?'

'The stars going out... yes, yes, terrible, nasty business that...all fix now though,' said the Doctor in a breezy, dismissive manner. The next thing he said though, he said with absolute seriousness.

'No. I'm not the one you're looking for. He's still out there, waiting for you to find him again...I'm kinda glad you came along when you did though, it would have been an absolute nightmare trying to break out of that cell using nothing but my ingenuity and possibly a bedspring.'

Rose stepped closer to him, 'I do find you again then? It all works out?' there was a desperate urgency contained in her words.

'Rose Tyler, you're not seriously asking me to reveal anything about your immediate future, are you?' the doctor asked with a small smile on his face. Rose couldn't help but notice the tortured look in his eyes though, she didn't press the matter further.

Getting out of the hospital proved quite an interesting event, especially the bit where they had to shimmy down a drainpipe. The Doctor insisted on reversing their positions and going first, to save his modesty, however, a few strong gusts of wind that sent his gown around his ears soon quashed any hopes of that. Rose couldn't remember the last time she had this much fun scaling a building. _Oh yeah, it was the time me and the Doctor had to break out of that palace on Obsolon 5, fun times_! But after much running, reminiscing, and quite a bit of ducking and dodging the odd passerby, laughing all the while, they soon found themselves stood outside the doors of the Tardis.

'Ah, right where I left her,' said the Doctor as he fondly stroked the exterior. He hadn't noticed that Rose had stopped a few steps back. She was stood at the beginning of the alleyway. She didn't dare go any further. When the Doctor did look back, and saw that look upon her face, he knew the time had come for her to disappear from his life once again.

'I...I guess you'll be going then?' he softly asked.

'Yeah well, places to go people to see, you know,' she couldn't help the tears that slipped down her cheeks. The Doctor strolled purposefully back up the alley, he wrapped his arms around her waist, dipped her slightly and then placed the most breathtakingly tender kiss upon her lips. Rose's eyes fluttered closed, she fisted her hands in his hospital gown and kissed him back for all her worth. And then it was over, and he was moving away once again.

'You'll see me soon Rose Tyler,' he said as he walked back towards the Tardis once again.

'But will you ever see me again?' her voice wavered as she asked. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out her dimension hopper.

'Oh, I know better than to every rule out the possibility of meeting you again, Rose Tyler'

'Goodbye Doctor,' her tears fell free and fast now.

'Goodbye Rose Tyler,' the Doctor replied, he had gotten fairly misty eyed himself.

Rose looked back one last time and smiled. Then she punched the button on her dimension hopper and disappeared in a hail of blue sparks. Then she was gone, leaving nothing in her wake but the smell of ozone. The Doctor stood and stared at the empty space she had just occupied for a few minutes more, and then he stepped into the Tardis and disappeared into the night too.


End file.
